Violent crime, particularly with the use of firearms, is on the rise in many locations. This has led many citizens to purchase their own firearms for purposes of self-defense. Many such firearms are handguns. However, secure and accessible storage of such firearms has proven to be a unique challenge.
Some individuals store their firearms in a location that provides ready accessibility, such as in a nightstand, under a bed, or in a cupboard. Unfortunately, the factors that make the firearm accessible to the user also make the firearm accessible to children and guests in the home, who may not be trained in the proper us and safety procedures for a firearm. This has led to several incidents in which children playing with firearms have been injured or killed.
Various measures such as trigger locks, separation of ammunition from the firearm, dummy ammunition, and the like have been used in an attempt to help prevent accidental firing, but such measures may be circumvented, particularly if the owner of the firearm does not know that tampering is taking place. Additionally, such measures may leave the weapon and/or ammunition too inaccessible for emergency use, as they must be removed and/or corrected by the gun owner before it can be used.
Some gun owners choose to store their firearm in a safe. Although storage in a safe can help prevent tampering, many safes utilize keys or codes that can be obtained by children or other individuals that should not have access to them. Additionally, many safes are not readily located in a place where they can easily be accessed in an emergency. Safes tend to be bulky and heavy, and therefore are not portable in many instances. Furthermore, many safes simply take too long to open in the event of an emergency.
What is needed is storage systems and methods that remedy the deficiencies of the prior art.